Having been designing gyms for 25 years, you learn a lot. Especially when you were the Chief Product Officer for the biggest dealership in the world.
And while I've talked about gym flooring before, I think I've neglected this particular issue, probably because I don't have to deal with it. Out of sight...and smell...out of mind, I guess.
But we were working with a builder on the Cape and the designer, in a high-end gym and the builder was bringing up some worry about the off-gassing and odors and people who are sensitive to rubber smells, because he's had a number of clients who have had that problem. He mentioned that a lot of the clients he's worked with hated to go into the gym because of the smell of the flooring.
And you never want to make a builder look bad in front of a client, so you have to agree and then disagree. So what I did is I told him he's right, 90% of the floor that's sold, especially the stuff that's sold online and sight unseen, yes there's a lot of off-gassing. Cheaper flooring is not just harder on the joints, it also has a much cheaper processing so the smell of the recycled rubber is very prominent.
And I told him that when you Google the term smelly rubber flooring, there's all sorts of responses about wiping them with vinegar, or putting them in sunlight, or people complaining they had no idea that the rubber they were buying online was going to smell that way.
But I reminded him that I'm an expert in this, and there are reasons that so many people refer me. And the same as I carry the best brands of equipment, the reason I feature
Ecore flooring is because they have the least amount of off-gassing in the industry. I've been able to put their floors in areas with people who have tremendous odor sensitivity without any problems. It's right there in the
technical documentation about their floor score, and how they've been certified to be used in classrooms in corporate public spaces.
The smell people is primarily caused by rubber off-gassing – the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from rubber materials. VOCs are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids, and they’re responsible for that distinctive "tire shop" scent, though the glue can also cause short-term odor.
Rubber gym flooring made from recycled tires (crumb rubber) tends to release more VOCs than virgin rubber. These materials are processed with synthetic additives and petroleum-based chemicals that contribute to the intensity of the odor, so the quality of the process has a huge amount to due with both the price and the offgassing.
So, if you bought some online flooring, ands wondered why does rubber smell so bad? — You're smelling chemical byproducts that haven't fully dissipated yet. That's why we work with Pavigym, that makes virgin rubber products, and Ecore, with their premium processing.